Heir to an illegal gambling business owned by his murdered father, Valerio spends his days working for his uncle Linduarte, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy while dreaming of getting out and going straight with his wife Regina. But when the opportunity presents itself, Valerio and Regina’s desperate stab at a new life leaves them embroiled in a downward spiral of treachery and corruption. Blinded by greed and beset by paranoia, the couple is swept into the violent undertow of Rio de Janeiro’s criminal underworld, leaving behind a bloody wake of bodies and betrayal.
One of Brazil’s most-anticipated films of the year, Fernando Coimbra’s successor to 2013’s A Wolf at the Door is a blood-soaked crime thriller that marries the darker shades of the Coen Brothers’ irony to the melodramatic flourishes of Shakespeare, finding inspiration in the murderous scheming of Macbeth, the obsession and revenge of Hamlet, and the violent excess of Titus Andronicus. Carnival is Over is a withering social critique wrapped in a bleakly comic tragedy where no one is left unscathed.
Leandra Leal, Irandhir Santos, Thiago Thomé, Pêpê Rapazote, Ernani Moraes, Augusto Madeira
Brazil/Portugal
2024
In Portuguese with English subtitles
At Vancouver Playhouse
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Rui Pires, Daniela Antonelli Aun, Gabriela Tocchio, Ana Saito, Pablo Torrecillas, João Fonseca, Fernando Fraiha, Rodrigo Castellar, José Alvarenga Júnior, Leandra Leal, Marcio Fraccaroli, Veronica Stumpf
Producer
Caio Gullane, Fabiano Gullane, André Novis, Fernando Coimbra, Luís Galvão Teles, Gonçalo Galvão Teles
Screenwriter
Fernando Coimbra
Cinematography
Júnior Malta
Editor
Karen Harley
Production Design
Caio Costa, Rafael Torah
Original Music
Thiago França
Fernando Coimbra
Fernando Coimbra is a screenwriter and director who was born in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. He graduated in Film and Video from the University of São Paulo in 1999. His debut feature, A Wolf at the Door (2013), won Best Film at San Sebastián in the Latinos Horizontes section. Coimbra also directed episodes of Narcos and Netflix’s Sand Castle (2017). His latest film, Carnival is Over, was developed at the 2015 Sundance Screenwriter Lab and received the institute’s Global Filmmaking Award.
Filmography: A Wolf at the Door (2013); Sand Castle (2017)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Chez Jolie Coiffure
Having immigrated to Belgium from Cameroon, Sabine manages Chez Jolie Coiffure. Her salon patrons, many of them undocumented immigrants, are not only be made to feel beautiful but can also escape the daily difficulties and harsh realities of their lives.
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Atlantics
In Dakar, Ada loves Souleiman but has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada's wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. It seems Souleiman has returned.